What do you call a teacher without a classroom?

What a week. I’m sure many of us, if not all of us, will agree that last week was the strangest of our teaching careers. Whether you’ve been teaching for 2 years or 20, remote learning is a new experience for many of us.

Being a teacher without a traditional classroom and students working away in them is heartbreaking but of course, necessary. I know it is keeping our students and colleagues safe and helping to save lives so I am glad the government made the decision. I think however it’s okay to admit that I miss the smiles and greetings of colleagues, the chatter of students, students trying to ‘spud’ me, students making me laugh, classes actively engaged in talking about literary texts and colleagues sharing their favourite lessons of the day amongst many others.

This new ‘normal’ way of working and teaching means adapting the way we’ve been doing things in education. But the thing about us teachers is that we’re used to change. So of course, when it was announced that schools needed to close, teachers showed their adaptability, their resilience, their kindness, their generosity and their desire to actively contribute to society by staying at home and doing the best they could to support students and colleagues. In these desperate and difficult times, when many of us are fighting our own personal battles, I have seen teachers shine and share their light (mind the cliche).

I’m so proud to be part of this profession, working with the colleagues I do, teaching the students I adore and serving my own community. Okay so I might not have a classroom but I have a laptop and internet access (many of my students do not) and I’m doing my best to teach remotely and provide resources to ensure that the poverty gap does not increase as a result of this. Most importantly, I just want my students and colleagues and their families to stay safe, be well and know they are loved in these strangest of times.

Through Google Meet and DPR, I’ve been able to keep in touch with my students, continue to teach some lessons, share resources and just try and show my students I care. This care is both ways as I’ve had students emailing me to ask how I am and how my dad and family are. What more could a teacher want?

What I’m learning from this- and I’m sure there’s more to learn- is to remind ourselves that we are not alone in this, despite being isolated and far away from each other. We are all in the same situation trying our very best to do the best for our students but we also need to be kind to ourselves.

Teachers are so selfless that we forget that we need to take care of ourselves too. Many of us have children of our own and balancing this new way of living must be challenging to say the least. Sometimes, we’re not going to get it right and that’s okay. Some days we’ll just want to eat junk food, sit in our pjs, call our family and friends and watch ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and that is most definitely okay.

When we look back at this time, how do we want to be remembered? What do we want our families, friends, students and colleagues to say about us? How do we want to remember ourselves?

I will remember how we all contributed to our communities, whether we’re teachers, support staff, office staff, cleaners, dining staff, NHS workers, supermarket staff; the list could go on. We all have something significant to contribute and we should all be proud of what we’re achieving now and will continue to achieve together.

Please take care of yourselves and the ones you love and continue being phenomenal!

Yamina